The Cure
by KindOfAmy
Summary: It doesn't just reverse vampirism, it brings the dead back to life. So what happens when Caroline dies, and Klaus has to make a decision between bringing her back, or saving Elena to make his hybrids? One-shot.


I hold the small vial up to the light, examining the thick red liquid inside of it: The blood of the original doppelganger. That is the cure, and there's just barely a drop left.

Who would have thought that it would be here in Mystic Falls, this whole time? Hidden away under an old tomb stone.

I'm snapped out of my daze when a set of slow footsteps approach behind me.

"You came alone?" I ask subtly, turning around to find a hysterically sobbing Elena. That really is starting to get annoying.

"I did as you asked," she says, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her jacket, "No one knows I'm here."

I put my hand on her cheek, and carelessly wipe away one of her tears.

"There there, now," I reason, "Everyone is getting what they want. You'll be human again, and I'll have my hybrids. There's no reason to cry-"

"Caroline is dead."

It takes a moment for the words to sink in, words that I had never expected to actually hear out loud. I shake my head to try and rattle them back out, but they stay there like an infectious plague; poisoning and eating away at my insides.

"I don't believe you," I finally say after a moment's silence.

"She was staked by Shane- or Silas- or whoever the hell he is!"

My gaze falls to the floor and my feet slowly start to back away. I can feel the water building in my eyes. Before another word is said, I turn around and leave.

* * *

"Did you feel it, Klaus?" He chokes out, as I hold him up by his throat, "Did you feel her life being ripped away from this world?"

"Rest assured, I will tear you apart with my bare hands," I threaten, crashing him down on the desk, "But first I want to know _why_. Why _her_?"

I move my face close to his, watching him struggle for the words and enjoying the sight of his face covered in blood. Compliments of the brutal beating I had given him earlier.

"You don't remember me at all, do you?"

I knit my eyebrows together in confusion as an evil grin appears on his face.

"Here, everyone knows me as Professor Atticus Shane, but you used to know me by a different name. Does _Silas_ ring any bells?"

My eyes widen with shock. Elena had said something about him earlier. Could it really be true?

"That's impossible."

"Not quite," he retorts, "The little Bennett witch is an easy one to convince. But not as easy as it was getting you to kill all twelve of your hybrids. Do you remember that? Oh, that was like taking candy from a baby..."

"Why was _Caroline_ involved?" I grit through my teeth.

"You _murdered_ my family, Klaus," he growls in a deep voice, "I have lived this long, agonizing life trying to find a spell, a cure, _anything _that would just make me stop missing them so much. But there is _nothing... _only revenge for what you made me go through. Finding out that you _cared_ like that for another person just made her an easy target to get back at you, and make you live through the same hell I've had all these years."

I grab him by his vest and pin him against the wall.

"You know _nothing_ of my loneliness, and you know _nothing_ of my pain," I growl back, digging my hand into his chest, "And now I'm going to kill you."

He laughs victoriously.

"It's too late Klaus, the spell is done. I can't die," he taunts, licking the blood off his lips, "You and me... we're going to be around for a _long_ time."

"And I will make sure you suffer for every moment of it," I say, snapping his neck and watching him fall loosely to the floor.

* * *

I walk in on a very silent room full of vampires, all crowding around a dirty, white couch. The air reeks of death.

Elena perks her head up at me.

"Klaus?" She questions, almost not believing it's really me.

The rest turn around, just as stunned. Damon, Stefan, Bonnie, Matt, and even Tyler, all part away and let me through.

There on the blood stained couch, lies Caroline's ashen body. I start to wonder about the struggle she had gone through, that made her blood smear on the fabric like that. What were her last words? Her last thoughts?

I take a deep breath and remove these things from my mind, because she's _coming_ back, and no amount of hybrids could ever replace her.

Without another word spoken by anyone, I take out the vial and tip the last drop of the cure in between her gray, brittle lips. Almost immediately, her body reconstructs and becomes restored.

Her eyelids burst open as she draws a deep breath into her lungs. I can feel a bright smile tugging on my lips as I watch her chest rise and fall with life.

"Caroline!" Tyler cries out happily.

She takes one questioning glance at me and then jolts up from the couch, flying behind me and into Tyler's arms. Everyone attacks her in a group hug as she pulls Tyler's face into hers for a kiss.

I look down to floor and back away from the happy scene. Caroline is alive, and that is the only thing that matters.

* * *

"Klaus," she calls to me on the porch as I'm nursing a bottle of vodka.

I usually don't drink the hard stuff, but I figure I'd make an exception just this once.

"Should I call you Cara-Zombie now?" I tease playfully, my drunk dialect clearly showing.

She smiles back politely and sits next to me on the porch.

"Look," she starts slowly, "I just wanted to thank you for saving me... again. I know it wasn't an easy decision."

"Anytime, love," I say with a smile, and take another swig of the bottle.

"I mean it," she says, and leans over to kiss me on the cheek, "Thank you."

I look back to her, a bit stunned, and just give her another smile, nodding courteously.

She smiles back and then gets up to leave. I watch as she walks away from me, and figure that this is a sight that I'll probably get used to seeing. That's all fine, because at least I'm still _seeing_ it.

She has no idea, that if I had to make the same choice again, I would still choose her.

I will choose _her_ every time.

**(A/N: How are your feels doing? Leave me a review and let me know what you think!)**


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